Miriam O'Callaghan's show the big radio winner, picking up 21,000 listeners
RTE's Miriam O'Callaghan
Miriam O'Callaghan
RTE radio presenter Ray D'Arcy
Claire Byrne
Brian O'Driscoll, pictured centre, has joined the official battle for Ireland to be named Rugby World Cup 2023 hosts
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Miriam O’Callaghan has cemented her name as one of the hottest properties in Irish radio with 21,000 new listeners tuning in to her Sunday radio show.
The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures saw O’Callaghan’s figures jump to 262,000.
Champagne corks were also popping in Newstalk, as George Hook’s ratings showed an impressive jump of 5,000 listeners, bringing his daily fan base to 143,000, an increase of 20,000 listeners year-on-year.
Following his dramatic deflection to RTE from Today FM, the pressure was on Ray D’Arcy to deliver solid ratings.
Increase
RTE radio bosses breathed a sigh of relief to see his figures increase by 7,000 to 190,000.
According to Radio One boss Tom McGuire, the station is confident D’Arcy will pass the 200,000 mark before the end of the year.
“When the next JNLR results come out we should be well past 200,000,” he said. “It’s a great start for Ray. We’re delighted”.
Over on Today FM, Anton Savage fell by 18,000, to 194,000 while Ian Dempsey dropped 11,000.
Ivan Yates was pleased to hear Newstalk Breakfast is on the rise with listeners up 1,000 to 173,000.
Meanwhile, Lunchtime, presented by Jonathan Healy, registered a figure of 81,000, an increase of 9,000 year on year.
Off The Ball Weekend, the Newstalks sports show that Brian O’Driscoll joined last September, now has 234,000 listeners, an impressive increase of 67,000 year-on-year.
However, it was bad news for Pat Kenny whose figures fell by 8,000 to 134,000, trailing behind radio rival Sean O’Rourke, who pulled in 317,000 listeners.
It was a good day for female radio hosts with Claire Byrne gaining 10,000 listeners, while Marian
Finucane’s Saturday show increased by 7,000 to 373,000.
But one of the biggest winners was Miriam O’Callaghan. Speaking to the Herald, she said she was “thrilled” with the figures.
“They are always very stressful and unpredictable,” she said.
“I have a great team and we got some really big interviews this year, such as Leo Varadkar coming out and Bertie Ahern just last week.”
RTE Radio 1’s established heavy hitter of radio, Morning Ireland, enjoyed a significant boost to its numbers, with an extra 16,000 listeners.
Dropped
Some 433,000 people tuned in every morning, putting it comfortably ahead of all other radio programmes.
Joe Duffy’s LiveLine clawed back 2,000 having dropped 11,000 in the last ratings count. It now stands at 369,000.
The News at One team also saw a rise of 7,000 to take them to 314,000, and Ronan Collins rose 6,000 to 214,000.
Elsewhere on 2FM, Ryan Tubridy saw an increase of just 2,000 this quarter.
This builds on 12,000 last quarter and 6,000 on the quarter before that.